


Maybe There Was Such A Thing

by Jaydeemz



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Coliver Week 2014, Day 4 - Soulmate AU, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 05:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2720303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaydeemz/pseuds/Jaydeemz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver believed in soulmates. Connor didn't. My contribution to Day 4 of Coliver Week 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe There Was Such A Thing

Being late for work for not the first or second time, but third time this week had Oliver Hampton awkwardly running down a busy street with a Styrofoam coffee cup precariously balancing on top of his laptop, which he had grabbed without its case. He turned toward the Soulmate Advertising Firm, where he worked in the IT department, and spent more time doing research than technical repair; they gave him a part-time job as a counsellor not too long after he was initially hired. His colleagues called him Detective Hampton, since he had possibly the best track record in the country for aligning soulmates in their correct path to romance.  
  
Most people knew he was just lucky as hell — soulmates couldn’t be created, and Oliver was half sure that most of his success stories were just people who pretended they’d found the one. His services weren’t cheap, after all, and when people realized that they had wasted thousands of dollars on a scam… it could be freaking disappointing, so they covered that up with a shiny lie.

Therefore, people pretended they were in love and Oliver’s good reputation built itself. He knew he was just a pricey dating service, however, and that soulmates were not always what a person wished for in their significant other. All Oliver did was align matching interest, book a reservation at a dinner with a magical ambiance, recommend some fancy champagne, and crossed his fingers behind his computer screen. It worked pretty well to spark relationships, and by the end of the evening, most couples were so drunk that they could believe they’d found their true love.  
  
You could apparently tell when you saw your soulmate for the first time. Oliver was told by his parents that they just looked at each other one day, during a community soccer match, and they had immediately been interested in the other. His father had been the goalie, his mother a spectator, and they hadn’t been able to look away from one another for the entire game. In fact, they were still completely infatuated all these years later, so Oliver had grown up believing there was such a thing as soulmates.  
  
Oliver just wished it was easier — he wished he had been born with a name on his wrist or something that could give him a hint about where he was supposed to look. While people usually gave up on finding their soulmates around the age of 25, Oliver had done something about his. He had quit his job to apply at the advertising firm. He became observant, studying each client diligently for five full years, slyly hoping that his own soulmate would apply through his firm. So far, he hadn’t had much luck, but he hadn’t given up hope yet.  
  
While some men made his heart flutter pleasantly, none gave him the soul-crushing slap that he felt when he laid eyes on the dark-haired younger man sitting on a bench as Oliver was running to work. His feet literally stopped in their steps, and Oliver almost fell face first as he gasped in a breath, feeling every inch of himself strain toward the handsome man. He had hoped for a lightly bearded man with seductive dark eyes, and he wasn’t disappointed. The student — Oliver saw the Middleton Law School bag at his feet — was wearing black dress pants and shiny black shoes, and a dark purple dress shirt peeked out from under the leather jacket.  
  
What followed the sharp recognition, for Oliver, was sheer disappointment at the fact that the student wouldn’t notice him, for he was busy making out with a handsome dark-skinned boy his age. They were completely lost in one another, kissing deeply and hungrily as their hands roamed over the other’s body. The cold, mingled with their passion, tinted their cheeks darker, and Oliver felt as though his whole life had both been made complete and utterly destroyed in one stinging second.  
  
His soulmate looked happy. His soulmate looked like a damn supermodel, and so did his boyfriend; Oliver had never felt this inferior before.  
  
Oliver told himself he wouldn’t cry, but as he stood frozen in the middle of the hurried crowd on this chilly Friday morning, he knew he was damn close. Although his mind screamed at him to run, his heart kept him in place, silently pleading with the student to just glance past his boyfriend, to see Oliver, to experience the same rush Oliver had just felt so he could understand.  
  
What made Oliver move was the sickening reminder of his job — people picked lovers who weren’t their soulmates all the time. Cases were often reported of married couples finding a soulmate who wasn’t their spouse, but chose to remain true to their wedding vows. The student surely wouldn’t pick him.  
  
So Oliver moved on, hurrying down the street as his heart began to ache with despair.  
  
***  
  
"Connor, there you are!" A shrill female voice made a few people’s heads turn.  
  
Connor detached himself from his boyfriend just long enough to tilt his head back, letting him suck at the skin of his neck instead. He gave a lopsided smile in his work colleague’s direction before he called back, “Hey, Michaela!”  
  
"I have been looking for you all over town — why is your phone turned off? We have exams to study for!" Michaela’s eyes were still riveted in his as she stopped in front of him. She was dressed brilliantly as usual; today’s outfit was a red long coat covering her delicate white blouse and a black pencil skirt over dark tights and spiked-heel boots. A brand new designer bag hung over her arm, swinging carefully because of her agitation. Her hair and makeup had been tastefully done. Michaela believed in soulmates. Michaela was ready to meet hers all the time. Michaela made herself up every day so she would be ready for this moment.  
Connor mocked her relentlessly about it, too.  
  
"I’ve been busy, as you know," Connor replied, finally pulling away from the other man. "Michaela, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Aiden Walker."  
  
Michaela’s eyes snapped to the other boy and she parted her lips to, most likely, give a curt and dismissive greeting, but her entire demeanour changed in a moment. Connor felt Aiden stiffen beside him, and his head whipped from one person to another.  
  
"Oh… my God," Michaela casually said, immediately melting into a comfortable smile. "I… hi."  
  
"Hi," Aiden breathlessly replied as he stood. He took a few steps toward her, his eyes shining as he began to laugh. "Tell me you feel it, too."  
  
"You’re my soulmate." Michaela suddenly squealed in delight, her gloved hands flying to cover her face as Aiden beamed at her. He took a few steps away from Connor, completely lost in the beautiful woman in front of him, as the two individuals linked their fingers together. "It’s so nice to meet you."  
  
Aiden was about to respond when Connor’s dry voice cut through the conversation. “Excuse me, Michaela, but he’s gay… and taken.”  
  
Both turned to the law student, who looked beyond offended at that point. Michaela’s face fell a bit, but a look of pure determination crossed Aiden’s face as he slid an arm protectively around her shoulders. While Michaela looked pleasantly surprised, Connor simply fumed at the sight as Aidan clarified, “I’m sorry, Con… I know you don’t believe in soulmates, but—”  
  
"But you told me I was yours," Connor replied, thoroughly irritated. There may have been a bit of pain somewhere in there, also.  
  
A brief look of guilt slid through Aiden’s eyes, but he turned to glance down at Michaela. He hesitated, but eventually still stuck to his rejection. “I made a mistake. I’m ending our relationship, Connor… I don’t want to cheat on you in any way, and I feel like Michaela and I have something different. I hope you understand.” He reached out to touch Connor’s shoulder.  
  
"He will," Michaela cut in. She looked a twinge more upset than Aiden at the prospect of breaking up the couple. Connor had honestly sounded really excited about this relationship when he spoke of Aiden in the office, and she didn’t like that he would most likely go back to one night stands casually picked up at bars. "Connor, the way I felt when I saw Aiden… It’s indescribable. Trust me, when you meet—"  
  
"I won’t meet anyone like that," coldly snapped the law student as he picked up his bag from the ground. "I won’t, because this is all bullshit." He didn’t give the new couple a chance to respond as he turned and stormed away.  
  
He heard Aiden call out to him, but he walked away with his head held high.  
  
Connor Walsh told everyone that he didn’t believe he had a soulmate. With the way he had felt about Aiden, he had honestly begun to believe that the stupid concept of soulmates might be true.  
  
Yet as he headed downtown, he resolved to never let the doubt cross his mind ever again.  
  
***   
  
… But Oliver couldn’t quite forget the boy with perfect teeth and wavy dark hair. He dreamt of him, now, and figured it was his subconscious chiding him for running away from this golden opportunity.  
  
It took him days to sift through the extensive list of male students at Middleton Law School — which he did on company time — but he found the name he was looking for. Connor Walsh — the name rolled easily off his tongue as he whispered it to himself when he finally stumbled across the handsome student ID photo. He knew it was unlikely that Connor would ever have given him a second glance if they crossed in the street, and yet…  
  
Oliver believed in soulmates. He really did.  
  
So he hacked a bit deeper in the school system, learnt Connor’s schedule by heart, and decided he would casually bump into him in a few days. It was worth a try.  
  
***   
  
Everything was disgusting to him right now — and it wasn’t caused by the crummy campus bar they sat in every Monday night to study. Connor looked at Laurel and Frank, Wes and Rebbecca, and now Aiden and Michaela, with utter disgust. Why had Laurel, Wes, and Michaela brought their soulmates, he would never know. It irritated him.  
  
Asher leaned a bit closer to him, and sighed before he mimicked Connor’s slouch and tilt of his head. He peered over, only letting his eyes move, and drawled, “It’s tragic… Do you think our turn will come?”  
  
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Connor scoffed in reply, bringing his beer a bit closer to his lips as he considered smacking his colleague. “Why are you being sentimental? It’s unbecoming, stop it.”  
  
As Asher retreated mournfully to his corner of the study group, Connor stood up to edge closer to the new lovers. He enjoyed standing near them — while Michaela had completely gotten rid of her guilt about breaking off Connor’s first relationship in months, Aiden seemed to somewhat regret his decision. They would never be friends again.  
  
Perhaps Connor should’ve replied to the text messages Aiden had sent him instead of reading and erasing them as they came in. So, to mask his pain, Connor annoyed them by standing too close to either of them, and by staring while they kissed.  
  
"Someone have a gay soulmate?" he asked casually when they pulled away from another kiss. Michaela glared at him and Connor turned away to hide his cold smirk.  
  
Something else caught his eye, however, distracting him from his teasing. He lifted his chin a bit higher as he saw the back of a well-cut grey blazer, falling over a tall man’s hips. He was standing with his legs crossed at the ankles, the tip of one shoe resting on the floor. His arms were splayed out, palms on the flat surface and fingers curling under the edge of the counter. He was waiting patiently for his turn as the bartender mixed fancy drinks for a bunch of freshmen girls — he was doing quite a show, but Connor wouldn’t tear his eyes from the way the man’s pants were just perfectly curving on his body.  
  
He would definitely hook up with that one tonight.  
  
Connor advanced toward his next conquest, not expecting him to turn around. The man at the bar only tilted his head sideways, displaying thick-rimmed glasses and a freshly shaved face with a jaw that made Connor’s heart jump in excitement. He usually didn’t go for the geeky type, but he could make an exception for such a nice body.  
  
The bartender approached them, and Connor opened his mouth as he stopped behind him, fully intending to order two Maker’s Manhattans, with…  
  
“… two cherries.”  
  
The bartender didn’t flinch as he pulled out two martini glances. The stranger kept his pose, only glancing over his shoulder with a smirk. Slanted eyes looked teasingly at Connor and a knowing smile morphed on his lips.  
  
When he was little and still believed in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and the soulmate concept, Connor had expected fireworks. He thought that he’d feel a punch in the gut like his father had told him, or sense like he was drowning, like his older sister had claimed to feel. He was convinced it would mean an instant head-over-heels reaction from both himself and his partner, or the strained silence like Michaela and Aiden’s meeting. Instead, Connor only felt the most overwhelming sense of curiosity and a feeling of comfort he’d never been able to share with a stranger before. He was completely impatient to learn every detail about this stranger, and yet he felt like he’d known him for years.  
  
“I’m Oliver Hampton,” the man said, finally sliding his hand from the corner to offer it to Connor. They shook hands, like perfect strangers… like they weren’t both experiencing a rush that would change their lives forever.  
  
“Connor Walsh,” the law student replied. He could feel his study group eyeing him with interest, which made him blurt out, “How about we get out of here?”  
  
The two drinks were set in front of them, and Oliver took his with a surprisingly steady hand. He breathlessly laughed at Connor’s direct demand, but took a sip of his drink and casually complained, “I don’t talk to guys at bars that often.” He then winked at Connor, and the law student knew he was caught.  
  
Being soulmates didn’t mean he’d have it easy, apparently, and a part of himself was glad for that. Connor lifted the martini glass to his lips, letting his eyes undress Oliver with the most seductive glance he could give, and chuckled lowly to himself when he finally saw Oliver flush.  
  
Maybe there was such a thing as soulmates after all.


End file.
